Crime and Justice Summer Research Institute: Broadening Perspectives and Participation

Scholars pursuing tenure and career success in research intensive institutions, academics transitioning from teaching to research institutions, and faculty carrying out research in teaching contexts will be interested in this Summer Research Institute. Organized by Lauren J. Krivo and Ruth D. Peterson and funded by the National Science Foundation and Ohio State University, the Institute is designed to promote successful research projects and careers among scholars from under-represented groups working in areas of crime and criminal justice. The 2006 inaugural institute will be held July 10-27, 2006.

Participants will be provided with necessary resources for completing research that is already on-going and will work with senior faculty mentors in their areas of study. There will be opportunities for networking with other junior and senior scholars. Research and professional development workshops will address topics related to publishing, research methods, and professionalization. The institute will culminate in a research symposium where participants present their completed research before an audience of nationally recognized scholars.

Participants will be housed in a trendy neighborhood of Columbus with easy access to campus and downtown. Expenses for travel to Ohio, living, and local transportation will be provided. Applications must be postmarked by February 10, 2006. For more information and to download an application, please see the web site.

Call for Papers: Global Crime

Global Crime is a peer-reviewed journal published by Routledge that presents high-calibre scholarship on serious and organized crime. Its coverage is not just on organized crime in the strict sense, but on a wide range of criminal activities, from corruption, illegal market transactions, state crime and terrorism. This focus is deliberately broad and multi-disciplinary, its first aim being to make the best scholarship available to specialists and non-specialists alike. It endorses no particular orthodoxy and draws on authors from a variety of disciplines, including history, sociology, economics, political science, anthropology and area studies. Visit the web page of the journal.

During 2006,Federico Varese and Carlo Morselli will be co-editing a special issue on the application of Social Network Analysis to the study of criminal groups. This issue seeks to advance applications of social network analysis in the study of crime, security, and related areas of research. We invite contributors to send both empirical and theoretical papers.

The deadline for submitting abstracts is February 1, 2006. We expect to receive the papers by May 1, 2006. The special issue will be published in 2007. Authors will receive 50 off-prints and a free copy of the issue.

Submit abstracts to Federico Varese at Federico.varese@law.ox.ac.uk
by February 1, 2006.

Submit papers to Federico Varese at Federico.varese@law.ox.ac.uk
by May 1, 2006.

Dutch Crime Pattern Analysis on Synthetic Drugs Crime 2002-2004

In November 2005 the Dutch National Crime Squad published its Crime Pattern Analysis on Synthetic Drugs Crime 2002-2004. The analysis deals with the development of the features and size of this crime (e.g. the confiscations, the production sites, the precursors, the dumpings of waste, the prices), and with the groups that are involved in this crime (and especially focuses on their modus operandi). If you might be interested in receiving a digital copy of the English version (approx. 190 pages), please contact the researcher directly. Also some hard copies are available.

Call for Papers: ANZSOC 19th Annual Conference

Issues such as those related to environmental harm, terrorism, asylum seekers, use of torture, and cyber-crime are forcing criminologists to reassess key concepts and analytical priorities. In the context of rapid change and globalising social processes, there has been a growth in the human rights perspective as a critical perspective by which to evaluate policing and security practices, access to law and the protections of due process, the operation of courts and restorative justice measures, and the conditions under which people are detained or sentenced to work in the community. This conference provides an opportunity to explore further what a human rights approach to doing criminology might entail.

For more information please click here.

IASOC Monthly Report on Organised Crime Related News

ORGANIZED CRIME AND THE NEW BUSINESS OF TERROR: The cover story for the current issues of U.S. News & World Report reports on how Jidahist groups are using organized crime to finance their attacks globally. In a series of three connected articles in the same issue, reporter David E. Kaplan points to hybrid activities of organized crime in support of terrorism that includes drug trafficking, human trafficking, extortion, and murder for hire. He also shows the overlap among smuggling routes used by terrorist and organized crime groups, as well as profiling the boss of India’s major criminal network, and the unique position of the city of Dubai in the Persian Gulf as a crossroads of legal and illegal business. An important piece of journalism for those seeking to better understand the links between terrorism and organized crime. (December 5, 2005 issue). The New Business of Terror: organized crime, where prosecutors must show that the suspects profited by directing three or more people to commit felony acts on their behalf. Extended prison sentences of more than 15 years are possible upon conviction. One of the suspects charged as a leader said during a police interview, “she had 60 or 70 different people bringing her account numbers and checks that were stolen from vehicles and burglaries. She would then alter the checks and call the bank to make sure the accounts were good, and then distribute the checks to four or five people to cash them." Thomas Clouse, “Identity theft probe nets charges against 22; Four suspects facing count of leading organized crime,” Spokane Review, (November 5, 2005).

OVERSIGHT OF NEW YORK’S FULTON FISH MARKET: There are those who sell the fish, those who move the fish, and the peacekeepers from the city's Business Integrity Commission, a three-year-old agency with a mandate to keep organized crime out of the market. Commission agents keep the numerous refrigerated 18-wheeled trucks moving, and make sure everyone at the market is carrying a special identification card. Created in 2001, the commission took on organized-crime-fighting duties, which formerly was handled by several city agencies. In addition to market inspectors, the Commission has four dozen employees who conduct background checks and monitor the business activities of wholesalers with troubled pasts. The Commission is now at the center of a dispute between the market's wholesalers and the unloaders who bring them their wares by forklift. The legal dispute pits the company that has a monopoly on the unloading business, Laro Service Systems, against the market's 40 wholesale fish sellers, backed by the city, who want to do the unloading themselves. The Giuliani administration installed Laro 10 years ago, to replace six unloading companies that it said were mob-influenced. Asserting that organized crime is now gone from the market, the Bloomberg administration would like to allow the fishmongers to do the unloading for greater efficiency. Opponents fear organized crime control of the market will return. Andrew Jacobs, “Dispute Over Who Unloads the Daily Catch Delays a Fish Market's Departure,” The New York Times, (October 31, 2005).

TRENDS IN ORGANIZED CRIME, IASOC’s professional journal, vol. 9, number 1, is coming soon: Dues-paying members of IASOC receive this quarterly journal published by Transaction, in addition to this monthly e-mail newsletter, free listing of expertise on IASOC website, and access to web page news, links, publications, and book reviews. Dues are still $55 for North America and $75 outside North America---the difference to cover journal shipping costs. Dues can be paid on-line via PayPal credit card payment service at www.iasoc.net, or by check or money order. Mailing address: IASOC, P.O. Box 50484, Washington, D.C. 20091.http://www.iasoc.net

ANZSOC: 19th Annual Conference, 7 – 9 February 2006

The organising committee invites you to attend the 19th Annual ANZSOC Conference to held in Hobart, Tasmania from the 7 - 9 February 2006 at Wrest Point Convention Centre on located on the picturesque River Derwent.

The theme of the conference is 'Criminology and Human Rights' with participants invited to submit an abstract for presentation at the conference.

For more information click here

First Call for Panel chairs: Deadline 24th February 2006

Proposed ECPR section:
Comparing Organised crime between new and old threats

The ECPR will be organising its 4th General Conference in Pisa, Italy in September 2007. The ECPR Standing group would like to be present and organise a section dedicated to organised crime. The standing group has developed extensively since its last conference in Marburg, Germany, in 2003 and this would be the ideal opportunity to have an in-depth discussion about organised crime and for the group to meet. Therefore, the standing group would like to organise a section on the general topic of ‘Comparing Organised crime between new and old threats’. The idea behind this section is to encourage discussions about how organised crime seeks to imitate civil society, the economy and political systems in which it develops in order to better infiltrate, penetrate and coerce them. Thus, while terrorism is the 'new evil' and main policy priority for governments, organised crime carries on undeterred in a forever changing environment and this is what we would like to analyse. In particular, we would like panels which seek to investigate organised crime in a comparative mode and address its new characteristics. But we welcome all proposals.

Each section is made up of 10 separate panels each with their own theme. Each panel is made up of a chair, 3 paper givers and a discussant (who makes comments on the papers in order to forge a discussion). At this stage, we would like to ask people who are interested in organising a panel to come forward with an abstract of the topic they would like to propose and possible speakers who could be approached. If they have no potential speakers, we could then circulate a general call for papers after February and see who responds.

Please email your suggestions to Felia Allum (mlsfsa@bath.ac.uk) or Fabio Armao (fabio.armao@unito.it) before the 24th of February 2006. We will then organise a call for papers. The Standing group’s proposal needs to be ready for September 2006.

Call for Papers: 2nd Annual Workshop on Criminology and the Economics of Crime

In June 2005, the Program on the Economics of Crime and Justice Policy held the first annual workshop bringing together criminologists and economists working on related topics. The goal of the workshop was to improve each group’s understanding of the other’s work and to generate collaboration between them. As a result of the success of the conference, we have been able to secure funding for the second annual workshop, now scheduled for June 5-6, 2006 at the Wye River Conference Center facility about 50 miles from both Baltimore and Washington. We are seeking proposals for papers and sessions.

Papers can be on any crime topic that is likely to be of interest to both criminologists and economists, such as illegal markets, cost benefit analysis and desistance from crime. This year, we plan to include a set of sessions entitled “The Effect of Incarceration On . . .” The dependent variable of these analyses can be anything which might be affected by incarceration. Given that criminologists and economists bring quite different methodologies and findings to the issue of incarceration, we anticipate that this will be a particularly invigorating and productive exchange.

A session will consist of two or three papers, which will be available to participants prior to the session. The format will emphasize short presentations (20 minutes), followed by a comment on the paper from a scholar from the other field (10 minutes) and then general discussion.

Proposals should be sent by February 1, 2006.

Call for Papers: Organized Crime: An International Encyclopedia

We are looking for contributors for the 2-volume, illustrated ORGANIZED CRIME: A INTERNATIONAL ENCYCLOPEDIA, VOL.I and II, to be published by ABC-CLIO in 2007.

The volume consists of sixteen chapters, broken down into three sections. Section 1 is devoted largely to historical antecedents, causation theories and group dynamics and provides a global overview (by region) of the organized crime problem.
Section 2 covers the global organized crime problem by addressing specific activities, enterprises and sources of financing. Section 2 also addresses some key issues such as Hi-tech and Cyber-crimes.
Section 3 addresses the global impact of organized crime, the criminal-terrorist nexus and international efforts to combat organized crime and corruption. Section 3 also contains several articles, which address the future of global organized crime and it’s control and concludes by providing an agenda for future research.

Articles run between 3 and 10 manuscript pages in length, depending on the subject. Small honoraria will be paid and/or copies of the full encyclopedia set will also be offered. The submission deadline for the remaining available entries is January 1, 2006. The author may contribute more than one entry provided the above due date is met.


Sincerely,

Frank Shanty
General Editor
ORGANIZED CRIME: AN INTERNATIONAL ENCYCLOPEDIA
P.O. Box 338
Abingdon, MD. 21009
Email: cobra141@prodigy.net

Article: The Changing Structure of Organized Crime Groups

Published by Royal Canadian Mounted Police, June 2005

(To obtain an electronic copy of the complete report (PDF), please send a request by e-mail to the Research and Evaluation Section (Community, Contract and Aboriginal Policing Services) of the RCMP research_evaluation@rcmp-grc.gc.ca)

From the Executive summary:

With significant improvements in modes of transport, communication and ever-expanding horizon of technology, organized crime has significantly evolved into a global phenomenon. It also appears that the factors contributing to globalization and the very fact of globalization of organized crime groups has resulted in a range of complex structures of these groups - necessitating the formation of market-driven transnational networks. Researchers have concluded that the criminal organizations of the 21st century are characterized by a large degree of fluidity and structural complexity. As opposed to the popular stereotypes, they utilize diverse forms and sizes of clusters, network structures and groups, often but not invariably transnational with occasional local home-bases, as suited for their diverse forms of illegal activities, and as dictated by emerging opportunities across the globe.